A Ridiculous AU That Makes No Sense
by Kinz.911
Summary: It should be impossible to be in Japan one moment and the next time you open your eyes, suddenly find yourself on a floor in London... shouldn't it? -No Pairings.- -AU- -Not as Ridiculous as it sounds- -Open to Requests made in reviews or PMs-
1. A Study in Pink: Rache

((But first! A disclaimer! I own neither Detective Conan or SHERLOCK. I just wanted to try my hand at a crossover.))

Shinichi felt a terrible pounding in his head not too unlike when he had first come to after shrinking. He kept his eyes closed and laid still for a minute and tried to gather his thoughts and piece together what had happened as he had no recollection of ever passing out. There wasn't a funny taste in his mouth and his head, while throbbing, didn't feel fuzzy so chloroform hadn't been involved. His hands and feet weren't bound but there was a rather heavy weight pinning him down and preventing him from sitting up-this weight felt like… a person?

He opened his eyes and propped himself up before recognizing the familiar outline of his Osakan friend and rival. He let out a particularly annoyed sigh and gave him a nice hard shove to get him to roll off of him. "Wake up." He hissed at the tanned teenager, using some effort to free himself from the heavy weight now pinning his legs.

"Five… min… 'Zuha…" the Osakan mumbled without ever opening his eyes. Shinichi only rolled his eyes and at last managed to free his legs. The problem of being pinned resolved, he wasted no time before kicking the other in the ribs with both his feet-the effect was immediate.

"Ow!" Hattori let out angrily before sitting up and twisting angrily to see who had kicked him. He paused when he was met with the sight of a half-amused child with over sized glasses and a red bowtie whom he knew to be the missing famed high school detective of the East. "What'd ya kick me for, ahou!?" He demanded angrily, none too happy with the smaller detective.

"You weren't waking up when I told you too." Shinichi shrugged nonchalantly before getting up and dusting himself off.

"So ya go an' jab yer feet inta my sides!?"

"Never mind that." The smaller said dismissively, clearly not concerned about any bruises he may have added to his friends' side. "Any idea where we are?"

"m' not sure, someone kicked me pretty hard and I think my sense o' direction mighta-"

"Would you stop being dramatic? I didn't kick you the head." The small child hissed, sounding annoyed. The tanned boy let out a sigh before getting to his feet and looking around.

"…I don't know, Kudo… definitely western style though." He he decided, the smaller nodding in agreement, though privately thinking that was an obvious enough deduction that it didn't need to be said out loud. "Neither one o' us was tied down-an th' door's open so-I can only assume this wasn' a kidnappin' attempt-cause if it was I'd hate t' think the East and West would get nabbed by someone that stupid."

"But Hattori… if it _isn't_ a kidnapping then how did we get here? Do you even remember what the last thing we did was?"

"…Last thing I remember was gettin' back to th' agency after the tablet murder."

"Mm… same here." Kudo nodded, trying to remember what had happened, he came to a blank and shook his head. Maybe it'd come back to him later-better to try and get his bearings now. He didn't wait for Hattori and merely slipped out of the open room and started up the stairs-if he went up then Hattori would know to go down.

He reached the top of the first flight of steps before he cautiously stepped on to the next floor up before wincing at the horrible racket his friend was making two floors below. So much for stealth. He made it up to the top floor and came to a slightly ajar door. all the others so far had been closed aside from the one he'd woken up in. He narrowed his suspiciously at the door and crept up close to it before gently poking it open, there was no sound coming from inside so he carefully slid.

He immediately froze upon entry as he was met with a woman lying face down on the floor dressed in far too much pink. It was kind of an eyesore. He carefully approached the woman after he confirmed she wasn't breathing and stepped up to the body to check for pulse. No luck. This woman was clearly dead.

"Jeez, you never get a break, do ya Kudo?" The sudden voice of Hattori Heiji forced him to spin around and shoot the other a glare. He'd been so noisy before why did he choose to sneak upstairs? He pushed the thought out of his head and turned back to the scene before him.

"Hattori…" The younger started, noticing something peculiar about the scene. He stepped up to where her finger was pointing to a word-a familiar word- '_Rache_' He vaguely heard Heiji state he was already calling the police as he felt a sort of rise in his chest before his own logical thinking crushed it. ' _…..Nah, couldn't be._'

"Hm… that's weird, I don't have service here." The Osakan stated, frowning at his phone. At that, Conan paused to pull out one of his two phones and a raised an eyebrow when he noticed he didn't have service either.

"No choice, we'll have to use a pay phone. You go, I'll watch the crime scene."

"Right." And with that, Heiji disappeared down stairs in search of a phone.


	2. A Study in Pink: Sherlock Holmes?

"Ah jeez, first time in a long time I've been shoo'd away from a crime scene." Heiji stated, leaning against a wall with his hands tucked in his pockets as he watched the police mill about the lot across the street. if he had been trying to make conversation with his short companion it wasn't working well as Shinichi had his thumb tucked under his chin and his finger pressed against his lips as he stood impossibly still, going over everything that had happened in his head. "I guess London doesn't pay much attention t' Japan's problems." He continued anyway, clearly unaware his friend wasn't listening. "And yard think they'd at least recognize that snob's name… he is from London, ain't he?"

"…Hattori… we're at Lauriston Gardens… in London and the word 'Rache' on the upper most floor and a woman dressed all in pink- it's a little different but-"

"Yeah… I know-I ain't as big of a fan as you are… but even I gotta admit it's similar. But don't go thinking' that this is-"

"How could that be possible?" Shinichi his friend a dark look. "I'm not _that_ bad, I'll have you know."

And then, without so much as another word to the other, Shinichi pushed himself away from the wall and easily ducked under the 'do not enter' tape and headed straight for a female plain clothes detective, tugging gently at the back of her jacket to get her attention. The woman turned around and immediately looked down before crouching at eye level with the boy.

"Was there something you needed?" He tone was gentle, almost soothing like one speaking to a small child that had woken up from a terrible nightmare. Still, he didn't like the woman much as she was standing between him and the crime scene. But he'd get passed her yet.

"I'm really hungry and Heiji-niichan only has Japanese yen in his wallet-can you please get me something to eat?" he offered her saddest, most pathetic look he could manage with every intention of melting her heart. She gave him a look of pity and he thought he must have been successful. He'd never know if his attempt had been successful because at that moment something had caught her attention and she stood up straight as two males approached the crime scene tape-one of them short and the other tall and wearing a great coat. They kind of reminded him of-He shook his head. No. No way.

"Hello freak." She greeted the one in the coat.

"I'm here to see Detective Inspector Lestrade." Shinichi would have recognized the golden opportunity to sneak back inside but the man's words forced him to freeze. The word craved into the top floor flashing in his mind again. It was-But… no… that was impossible.. wasn't it? Then again, it should be impossible to be in Japan one moment and the next time you open your eyes, suddenly find yourself on a floor in London.

"Why?" The woman demanded, none of the gentleness she had shown the small child reflected in her tone.

"I was invited." The man in the coat stated, sounding perhaps a touch agitated.

"Why?" The woman repeated, her tone carrying some amount of venom in it this time.

"I think he wants me to take a look." The other responded, sarcasm dripping in his tone. Definitely annoyed then, Shinichi thought, watching the exchange closely and staying mostly behind the parked police car.

"Well you know what I think, don't you?" The woman asked, crossing her arms but doing nothing to stop the man as he lifter the tape and ducked under it.

"Always, Sally." He stated before pausing for a moment. "-I even know you didn't make it home last night." The statement was enough to throw the woman, Sally, off her guard.

"Er… uh-who's this?" She changed the subject as the shorter man attempted to duck under the tape as the first had done.

"Colleague of mine, Dr. Watson." Shinichi felt his heart skip a beat and start pumping harder-blood rushing to his ears and blocking out the remainder of the conversation. No… no, it couldn't be… that was impossible-it _was_ impossible… wasn't it? He gives his head another harsh shake, trying to force the notion out but try as he might things were starting to click together- Lestrade, Lauriston Gardens, _Rache_ and now… Dr. Watson? Then… was it possible that he- was that man… could he be….

_**Sherlock Holmes?**_


	3. A Study in Pink: PINK!

When Shinichi had regained himself he noticed that the plainclothes detective was in some kind of argument with some man and recognized his chance to slip inside the building. He edged along the wall at first before sneaking into the entrance hall. There were a good deal of officers inside but being stuck as a child for so long meant he'd learned to easily slide passed the police. It was a little more difficult than back home since he couldn't use the exact same tricks he usually did, but he was still a genius detective and really, distracting the police and slipping passed them was something that really didn't take as much effort as one would think. Add in the fact that he was almost desperate to know if that man really was _The_ Sherlock Holmes and really, the police didn't stand a chance against him.

He reached the top of the stairs and had to duck out of the way to avoid being seen. The man that Sally girl was talking with stepped over to the room the dead woman was in and leaned against the open doorway. That presented a problem.

"Have you got anything?" There was a voice from inside.

"Not much." The man in the coat was saying-the one that was possibly Sherlock Holmes.

"She's German." the man leaning against the doorframe. After a brief moment of silence he elaborated. "Rache. German for 'Revenge.' She could be trying to tell us-" Oh no! The door was closing. Shinichi took a deep breath and rushed into the door, shoving against it as it was closing and forcing it open enough to gain entrance.

"Yes, thank you for your-" The man that he suspected might be Sherlock Holmes was saying before he cut himself off as the small child forced his way in and ran straight into the man shutting the door-the impact enough to send him to the floor with a soft thud. "-And who is this?"

"Conan. He and his brother are the ones that found the body." The other man supplied, sounding close to Kogoro right before he either hit him or threw him out of the room. Recognizing the warning signs, Shinichi got up and moved farther inside the room. He did not come this far just to get thrown out.

"Oh really? You stuck around?" The man that was quite possibly Sherlock Holmes was addressing him-addressing Shinichi-for a horrifying moment he didn't know what to say-he had almost completely forgotten how to speak and the words seemed to have gotten stuck in his throat-not a good first impression.

"W-well, I live at a detective agency s-so…" He stammered nervously, cursing himself for sounding so pathetic. If this was Sherlock Holmes the stammer was no doubt annoying. He had to find something to focus on quickly or he'd risk hyperventilating. He tore his eyes away from the adults-live adults anyway, and turned to the dead woman in the exact same position he'd found her in and back to the word carved into the floor.

While it was true that '_Rache'_ was the german word for revenge and had been the original meaning in the books but this was different-maybe reversed? He looked down at the word again-all evidence seemed to point to the idea that she hadn't finished carving the word and died mid-letter.

"Ne, is he really sure this lady is German?" He pointed innocently at the woman dressed in pink.

"He might be, but I'm thinking she's from Cardiff-In fact I know she is."

"I see, so that means this is probably a name, right?"

"Yes, in all likely hood it's probably-How did you know that?" Shinichi felt all eyes land on him-the one set seizing him up for all he was worth-judging him. Calm down Kudo, it's not like he'd missed anything so there was nothing wrong with his deductions.

"It doesn't look like she finished carving the 'e' and died before she finished, if she had finished I think she would probably would have pointed to the word rather then just the 'e" He explained. "Farther more, the 'R' is the only capital letter and it would have been easier and taken a little less time to-"

"KUDO!" A very angry Osakan detective stalked forward before gripping the small by the from of his shirt and hoisting him up to eye-level. "How dare ya just go off an' leave me like that! Ya didn't even tell me ya found a way in!" He shouted, giving the small child a shake.

"Well Detective Inspector Lestrade, seems like your police force folds in the face of a teenager and a small boy."

"…Lestrade?" Hattori was immediately distracted from his yelling and whipped around to face man who had just finished speaking. "…Are you Sherlock Holmes?"

The room had gone deathly quiet as all eyes were on Hattori for that very blunt question. Shinichi would have face palmed at his friend but he still currently about three feet from the ground since the Osakan had still not set him down.

"…Yes." Holmes finally answered, watching the teenager closely. "And you are?" He raised an eyebrow. "The elder 'brother' it seems-How Anderson mistook you for related is a far more baffling mystery then the current one-but you are both Japanese."

"….confused." Heiji answered, sounding as every bit as stunned as he looked. He looked Holmes over closely before turning to the small child currently in his grip.

"Yes, I managed to work that bit out by the look on your face-question is _why_ are you confused? A name, if you don't mind." Heiji set Conan back down and the younger just turned to watch Holmes, clearly in a state of awe.

"Heiji Hattori-famous high school detective of the west." Heiji stated proudly, not nearly as humbled as his eastern counterpart and quickly getting over his initial shock. That time, Shinichi did face palm and shook his head, wondering why his best friend was such an idiot sometimes.

"Oh, are you? Strange, I've never heard of you. Any good?" Holmes had raised an eyebrow.

"The best." Hattori nodded."

"Oh, I highly doubt that but, by all means." He gestured to the body on the floor.

"Now hold on. You can't honestly believe him." The man Shinichi matched to the name Anderson cut in. "You must be kidding if you think I'm about to let a _kid_ examine the body-I won't have the crime-"

"Neither one of these boys are even remotely disturbed by the fact they're standing in the same room with a very recently dead body-conclusion? They've both been around this sort of thing before. I don't think you have to worry about them contaminating the crime scene."

"…So this woman- she's not German?" The shorter man with the cane-Dr. Watson attempted to get things back on the subject of the dead woman.

"What?" Hattori turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Of course she's not German. What idiot thought she was German?"

"I did." Anderson spoke up, as though owning up to it would somehow force the Osakan to apologize.

"Ya thought she was German? Really? An' her coats still wet?"

"I don't see what her coat being wet has to do with anything." Anderson stated, maybe a little annoyed he didn't get that apology or maybe it was that a seventeen year old had called him an idiot.

"…Are ya stupid?" It sounded like an honest question which may have thrown most of the room off. Shinichi noticed that Holmes actually seemed amused by it. Clearly, Holmes did not like Anderson or that Sally girl downstairs… both for obvious reasons.

"Excuse me?" Anderson asked, now obviously annoyed.

"It hasn't rained here today, that's one o' the things I checked while I was outside-so what ya think she did? stood by a sprinkler? Kudo an I thought that where she came from it had t' be-Ow!" Hattori winced as he felt a sharp pain in his foot. "I-I mean… C-Conan-kun an' I thought she couldn't of traveled too far but neither of us have service on our phones here, so we couldn't look it up areas that have had rain."

"Hmm…" At the tone Holmes was using, Shinichi couldn't shake the feeling it wasn't the Heiji's deductions that he was thinking about. No doubt he'd caught that slip up. But… well, if Holmes found out the truth he couldn't exactly see that as a bad thing. "You haven't been wrong so far, shame about your phones though." He shrugged before turning to Watson. "If you would like to give us your profession medical opinion, Dr. Watson."

"I have whole team right outside." Lestrade cut in.

"Yes, a whole team that a small child and teenager just showed up. And besides, they won't work with me." Shinichi raised an eyebrow, finding that he couldn't quite figure out why anyone wouldn't want to work with Sherlock Holmes when he was clearly the best. Lestrade opened his mouth to object but found he really couldn't argue.

"…Fine." He finally gave in, turning to the door. "Anderson, keep everyone out for a few minutes." He stepped out into the hall briefly.

"Dr. Watson." Holmes repeated. The two boys looked at each other and stepped away from the corpse so that Watson and Holmes could approach the body.

"And what I am doing here?" He asked as he crouched down next to the woman dressed all in pink.

"Helping me make a point." Holmes said quietly so that the detective inspector couldn't hear.

"I'm supposed to help you pay the rent." Watson responded, obviously unsure he wanted any part of this.

"Yeah, but this has more fun." Holmes said nonchalantly. "In fact, it's been much more fun than i had originally anticipated." He glanced back at the kids currently staying out of the way.

"Fun? There's a woman lying dead." Watson pointed down at her, finding nothing 'fun' about the idea of a dead woman.

"Perfectly sound analysis, but was hoping you'd go deeper." Holmes stated.

"…Right." Watson finally gave in, leaning in a little closer to get a better look. He took a moment to inspect near her face and checked her fingers before starting to get up. "Yeah, Asphyxiation… probably. Passed out, choked on her own vomit. I can't smell any-Oh thank you-" He was interrupted by the Osakan detective helping him to his feet. "-Can't smell any alcohol on her. Could have been a seizure. Possibly… drugs?" At that moment Lestrade came back in.

"You know what it was, you've read the papers." Holmes said seriously.

"Well, she's one of the suicides. The fourth..?"

"Oi, Kudo." Hattori hissed once he'd moved back over to the smaller detective that was currently lost in a deep thought.

"Ah.." He responded before Heiji even had to explain what had caught his interest.

"Sherlock, two minutes, I'll need everything you've got." Lestrade stated. At that, Conan perked up. He was going to get to see Holmes' deductions in person. This was the best!

"Victim is in her late thirties. Professional person, going by her clothes. I'm guessing something in the media, going by the frankly alarming shade of pink. Travelled from Cardiff today, intending to stay in London for one night, it's obvious from the size of her suitcase."

"Suitcase?" Lestrade repeated. Conan and Heiji looked to one another and exchanged looks, both mentally asking the other if the other knew how he knew it was suitcase that was missing.

"Suitcase, yes. She's been married at least ten years, but not happily. She's had a string of lovers, but none of them knew she was married."

"Oh, for God's sake if you're just making this up-" Lestrade started only to be interrupted.

"-Her wedding ring." He pointed to it before moving closer and crouching by the victim's left hand. "The rest of her jewelry has been regularly cleaned, but not her wedding ring. State of her marriage right there. The inside is shiner than the outside which means it's regularly removed. The only polishing it gets is when she works it off her finger." He paused a moment as he noticed that the smaller of the two boys had come up little closer to inspect the jewelry. He raised an eyebrow but let it go since the kid wasn't hurting anything. "It's not for work, look at her nails. She doesn't work with her hands. So what or rather iwho/i does she remove her rings for? Not one lover, she'd never sustain the fiction of being single for that long. So, more likely a string of them. Simple."

"That's brilliant." Watson said allowed, the two children nodding in agreement. "..Sorry." He retreated when all eyes had turned to him.

"Cardiff?" Lestrade questioned.

"Yes, obviously-the boys over there walked you through most of it, didn't they? Heiji is right, it hasn't rained today and since her coat is still wet that means she must have traveled from somewhere it was raining-the inside of her coat collar is damp too, she's turned it up against the wind. She's got an umbrella in her left hand pocket but it's dry and unused. Not just wind, strong wind-too strong to use her umbrella. We know from her suitcase that she was intending to stay overnight so she must have traveled a decent distance but she can't have travelled more than two or three hours because-as Heiji has point out, her coat still hasn't dried. So,-" He reached into his coat pocket to pull out his phone. "Where has there been heavy rain and strong wind within the radius of that travel time? Cardiff" He presented the evidence. "Fortunately for me, my phone does have service here."

"That's fantastic." Watson exclaimed again, the other two nodding along side him and Heiji feeling particularly smug.

"Do you know you do that out loud?" Holmes asked as he took a step closer.

"…Sorry, I'll shut up."

"No, it's…. fine." He looked down at the two younger detectives who were still watching him expectantly, almost like students watching a teacher.

"Why do you keep saying suitcase?" Lestrade asked.

"Yes, where is it?" Holmes turned in a circle, glancing about the room. "She must have had a phone or an organizer. Find out who Rachel is."

"She was writing 'Rachel'?" Lestrade glanced back at the dying message.

"No, she was writing an angry note in German-I believe Conan told you it was a name-or did you write him off because he's a kid? Of course she was writing 'Rachel." Holmes said sarcastically, still looking about the room. "No other name it can be. The question is-"

"-Why did she wait until she was dying to write it?" Conan questioned, once again inspecting the message on the floor.

"-Yes, exactly."

"How do you know she had a suitcase?" Lestrade asked the question that had earlier been on the two kids' mind.

"Both of you have been on the right track, so far, did you get that as well?" Holmes turned tot he two kids. Heiji and Conan looked at one another-Heiji Shrugged and Conan sighed.

"Actually, Heiji-niichan and I thought that she had to had some kind of accessory- like a bag, a purse, or a suitcase-but we couldn't find one and so couldn't be sure as to what it was she was missing." the smaller confessed.

"Hmm.. and you two were showing such promise." Holmes said calmly before directing everyone's attention to the corpse. "Tiny splash marks on her right heel and calf not present on the left. She was dragging a wheeled suit case behind her with her right hand. Don't get that splash pattern any other way."

"_…Okay, Kudo. I'm convinced._" Heiji hissed to the smaller so that only he could hear him. Shinichi only nodded.

"I see…" Apparently he was only paying attention to Holmes.

"-Smallish case, going by the spread. Case this size with a woman this clothes conscious can only be overnight bag-Wait. Missing?" He turned to the smaller detective. "You mean it isn't anywhere in the building?"

"Not that we saw, and we searched the building pretty thoroughly. Right Ku-ah-Conan-kun?" Heiji experienced another sharp pain in his foot.

"What's so important about the case?" Lestrade questioned.

"They take the poison themselves-They chew, swallow the poison themselves-there're signs even you lot couldn't miss them." He started to get up and head for the door.

"Right, yeah, thanks" Lestrade muttered before calling out- "And!?" Holmes stopped once he'd made it down the first flight of stairs and looked back up.

"It's murder, all of them. I don't know how, but they're not suicides, they're serial killings. We've got our selves a serial killer. Love those." He sounded positively gleeful. "There's always something to look forward too." He continued down the stairs.

"Why are you saying that?"

"Her case! Come on, where is her case? Did she eat it? Someone else was here and they took her case." He paused briefly. "So the killer must have driven her here. Forgot the case in the car…"

"She could have checked into a hotel, left it there?" Watson supplied.

"No, she never got to the hotel, look at her hair. She color coordinates her lipstick and shoes, she'd never have left any hotel with her hair still looking like-Oh." He suddenly stopped. "OH!" It was a clear indication he'd figured something out.

"Sherlock? What is it, what?"

"Ah!" The two younger detectives exclaimed at the same time.

"Serial killers. Always hard, you have to wait for them to make a mistake." He started moving back down the stairs again.

"We can't just wait."

"Oh, we're don waiting-Look at her, really look! Houston we have a mistake. Get on to Cardiff. Find out who jennifer Wilson's family and friends were. Find Rachel!" He conned on his way until he reached the ground floor.

"Of course, yeah." Lestrade stammered. "-But what mistake!?" He called down. Holmes resurfaced just long enough to shout a single word in response:

"PINK!"

Lestrade looked to Watson and then to the Osakan teen detective. "I don't suppose either of you know where-hang on… where'd the little one go?" Heiji blinked and looked down to see the obvious absence of one Edogawa Conan or Kudo Shinichi as he happened to know him as.

"…I really shoulda expected this."


	4. A Study in Pink: Slightly Sarcastic

With Holmes gone the Forensics team moved into the room and paid no mind to the teenager and army doctor. Watson let out a sigh and started down the stairs, followed closely by the detective kid with dark skin. He wasn't a bad kid-he stopped to help Watson if he thought he was having some trouble. They reached bottom of the stairs and Watson shed the plastic blue cover he'd been made to wear as Heiji continued out the front door.

He paused by the woman that had been guarding the tape and looked briefly down the road. He'd been about to ask her a question when John hobbled over. The woman took a look at him before answering the unasked question without a touch of sympathy.

"He's gone."

"Who, Sherlock Holmes?" Watson asked before looking over at the teenage detective who shrugged, a bit of irritation in his shoulders.

"Yeah, he just took off. He does that." She gestured in the direction he must rushed off in.

"Is he coming back?"

"Didn't look like it." She shook her head.

"Right…" John said, slightly exasperated. Heiji sighed, scratching absently as his cheek as he looked off in the direction the plainclothes detective had pointed.

"Did he have a kid with him?" He asked suddenly. The woman blinked and looked in that same direction.

"You mean the one in the bow tie? Wouldn't say with him-on his heels, more like. I tried to grab him but he was gone too fast." She explained, clearly having more sympathy for a small child.

"…Yeah, he does that. Can't believe I didn't seem him go." Hattori sighed. "doesn't matter, I'm sure he'll stick by Holmes' side to the end of time itself." She frowned at the statement.

"You shouldn't let him hang around that guy."

"You say that like I could stop him." Heiji shrugged, half amused and half annoyed. "Anyway, this is Brixton right?" He brushed the issue aside.

"Yeah, main road is just up ahead." She pointed with the hand her walkie-talkie was in. "But, seriously, you should keep that kid away from Sherlock Holmes, he's-" But she was interrupted by Hattori bursting out into laughter.

"Yeah right, like anything could keep him away from Sherlock Holmes he probably thinks he's died an' gone t' heaven." He waved it away before turning to John who was trying to workout what both these two were on about. "Watson-han, ya need help gettin' to th' main road?" He offered, lifting the crime scene tape up for him to slide under.

"Right, thanks." John nodded, ducking under the tape and heading for the main road. "But should you be after your-uh-that kid that was with you?" He asked. Heiji shrugged, he would have loved to have gone with the other two, but Kudo left much faster than he had anticipated, he was almost ashamed to say.

"Nah, he'll be fine followin' Holmes around. In fact, he probably couldn' be happier. I'll just catch back up with him at Baker Street."

"Baker Street?" The coincidence was a little alarming.

"Well, yeah, I mean… it's the one place he's sure to wind up if he's followin' Holmes around, ain't it?"

"But how did you-" John started but Heiji cut him off.

"I'll uh…. explain as best I can once I got better grasp o' the situation an I know myself what's goin' on." He said sheepishly. Not a second after he'd finished, did the phone in the cafe beside them start ringing. The two watched as an employee went to answer but as his hand hovered over the phone it stopped and the teenage detective and army doctor continued on their way.

They reached a pay phone and it sprung to life just as the one back in that cafe had. Heiji moved over to answer it but once again it had stopped ringing. He frowned and then turned to John.

"I think it's fer you, Watson-han." He gestured to the inside. "If I step away I bet it'll start ringin' again." As he did just that the phone sprang back to life and John gave the kid a look but stepped up to take the call and shut the door. Heiji only leaned against it, waiting on the good doctor to finish up his call and keeping his eye out for anything suspicious.

oOoOoOoOo

Shinichi was just about out of breath, running a full five minutes wasn't something he was accustomed too as he usually put his skateboard to use for anything overly athletic like this. It wasn't that he didn't like running but that his body was much smaller than it used to be and so he ran out of breath much faster than he'd like. He had followed Holmes to a back ally-he knew what the other detective was looking for-and the moment he stopped feeling like there was an anvil on his chest he'd try and help-but for now he just stood nearby, panting with his hands on his knees. If he started to see spots he was going to sit down.

Holmes emerged from the pile he had been looking through and noticed the smaller fighting desperately to catch his breath.

"So you followed. If you're going to follow me, the least you can do is make yourself useful. I assume you know what we're looking for." He stated, brushing himself off and heading in another direction since he'd obviously not been successful.

"Of course…" Shinichi panted. "Pink Suitcase-small overnight- probably a little dirty from the rain." he supplied. Holmes only nodded, continuing on his way in search of that suitcase, he was walking briskly, but not running, at least.

"Tell me once you've caught your breath." He stated without looking down at the younger that was tailing after him, thankful for the slower pace. However, Shinichi knew it wasn't exactly like Holmes to be accommodating like this while he was close to a lead.

"….The real reason you're letting me follow isn't because I want to help, is it?" He asked the older, feeling his breath starting to return. At that, Holmes did look back at the smaller.

"Of course not, I'm perfectly capable of working on my own." He said incredulously, as though wondering how anyone would have thought otherwise. "I simply wanted to observe you a little more. It's quite obvious to me you aren't really a seven year old boy but for some reason you don't want anyone to know that. You corrected your friend when he slipped and used your real name-the name you've given us is fake and your attitude towards your less than subtle friend suggests you're in hiding-in hiding from what I wonder. Something I should know about?"

Shinichi pauses only briefly but soon catches up. Honestly, he had fully expected Sherlock Holmes to realize the truth without the added hint that Kudo Shinichi and Edogawa Conan look identical. How quickly he'd put it together wasn't what shocked him-it was more that he was in awe that Sherlock Holmes had used his observation skills on him.

"You're exactly right of course, I'm not really a kid." He confessed, not even bothering to try and cover up the truth. This man is Sherlock Holmes. Any attempt to lie to him would be both a waste of effort and an insult to Holmes' intelligence. "The truth is, I'm actually seventeen."

You aren't telling me anything I haven't already observed." Holmes stated, leading the smaller to another location- large pile of trash carelessly stacked around a tall dumpster. "What I'm interested in is how you got like that and what it is you're hiding _from_, as well as a few other aspects." He stopped in front of the garbage bin and then looked down at his small companion. "For now though, I think I'll put you to good use." He smiled slightly which may have looked weird to anyone else but Shinichi knew exactly what the other wanted of him and so stepped up to start climbing the dumpster.

He was slightly startled when he felt the older grip his torso and just lift him to the mouth of the garbage bin. He didn't say anything though, he was far too used to being picked up with out warning and just reached for the top to pull himself up. He readjusted himself so he was sitting on the edge and trying judge how far he was likely to sink down when he hopped in. "I hope you intend to get me back out of here."

"That depends on how useful you are, then I'll make the decision of whether or not I want to keep you." Holmes stated, leaning against the dumpster, Shinichi could practically hear the ornery smile in his voice.

"I guess this means I should hope I prove my worth." He replied sarcastically, finding the idea of snark at Sherlock Holmes to be slightly surreal and yet it came naturally.

"Seems so." Holmes responded, pulling his phone out. Shinichi stood up carefully on the edge and looked around the dumpster for signs of disturbance-if the murderer had thrown the suitcase in here then no doubt he'd have also thrown some of the surrounding garbage bags in to A) cover up what he was really throwing away, and B) hide the suitcase from plain sight as pink was generally a very noticeable color. Some bags have definitely been moved around and no doubt Holmes noticed this about a minute before Shinichi did.

"If I find it it's probably about half my size." He pointed out calmly.

"Oh, I think if you're worth any of my time you'll think of something." Sherlock responded, clearly not even worried about that factor. In truth, Shinichi already had a plan as to how to get the suitcase out, even with his small stature standing in the way. Honestly, he just wanted to see what Holmes would say and was more than pleased to hear it wasn't something his idol _wouldn't_ say. Sherlock Holmes played the game for the game's sake and he worked to achieve justice purely for the sake of justice. Shinichi stays carefully balanced, unclips and removes his suspenders before pressing the button to make them retract.

"Here, hold this." He said easily, lowering one end of the suspenders down to Holmes who raised an eyebrow but took hold nonetheless.

"Suspenders?"

"Ah, well… they can stretch up to a hundred meters so they might be useful." The younger stated with a slight smirk before finally hopping down into the dumpster. Most of the bags were a little on the heavy side for him, but he was relentless and Shinichi absolutely refused to let his small stature get the better of him. There was a lot of struggling and heaving involved but finally he unearthed the pink suitcase and immediately hooked the suspenders around the handle right after checking for the name of course, and pressed the button to return the suspenders to normal size.

Thankfully, Holmes didn't immediately let go at the resistance and continued to keep a hold of the side he'd been interested with. Of course he did though as he had no doubt quickly figured out the smaller's plan the moment he'd been asked to hold the other end of the suspenders.

Conan got back up on the edge of the dumpster and handed the pink case down to Holmes who took it immediately and sat it down before turning back to the smaller and holding his arms out slightly. Shinichi had been all set to get himself down and so blinked in slight surprise at the offered help.

"Oh come on, you don't really think I'd make you jump down do you? At that height and your size? You'd more than likely sprain your ankle." Holmes said dismissively. "Now hurry up."

Shinichi was quite sure he could get down all on his own without breaking or spraining anything but this was probably quicker. He gently pushed off of the edge and just let the older detective catch him. Holmes immediately returned Conan to the ground and picked up the case before starting on his way as Conan took a second to clip his suspenders back on.

"I could have climbed down, you know." Shinichi stated as he trotted after the other.

"Yes, but I didn't feel much like waiting." Holmes shrugged it off. Shinichi stopped a moment-did that mean that he would have waited on him? He shook his head and started after him again, moving to fall in step beside the great detective.

"Does this mean I've proven my worth?" he chanced asking, his tone back to casual and slightly sarcastic.

"For the time being."


	5. A Study in Pink: An Enemy

Heiji had stayed watch while John spoke on the phone. He had rightfully found the it suspicious the amount of power the caller had to be able to judge where it was exactly that Watson was at any given time. He watched the others movements carefully and followed his gaze to the security cameras-that's right. Great Britain had most of their public places wired with cameras, didn't they? After a few minutes he heard the army doctor hang up the phone and step out of the phone booth.

"Sorry, we have to get in the car." He pointed to the one that had just pulled up. "He wants you to come too." Heiji looked at the sleek car and debated refusing-who ever this guy was he had far too much power and if Kudo had been right about the one guy really being Sherlock Holmes then Heiji had a nasty feeling he knew who was on the other end of that phone call.

But, as a detective, how could he turn down an interview like this? He gave a slight nod and followed Watson over to the car, sure that had Kudo been here too, he would have done the exact same-actually, he probably would have jumped at the chance since he thought the guy was the most interesting villain he'd read about. Sometimes it was hard to get Kudo to shut up for five minutes at a time once he got to babbling about Holmes.

"Hello." John was apparently trying to engage the woman they were sharing the ride with in some kind of conversation as she only continued to text away on her phone. Heiji rolled his eyes and leaned against the door as he looked out the window, blocking out the meaningless conversation as he doubted the woman was meant to be anything more than a pretty accessory that documented their behavior with her phone. He also thought she might turn out to be dangerous if push came to shove.

After a while the car pulled into some kind of warehouse and he and the good doctor were let out. There was a tall man in a suit leaning against an umbrella. Hadn't they established it hadn't been raining? There were two chairs sitting in front of the man Heiji guessed who they were for. He cast a quick glance around to see if they were surrounded but if this was who he thought it was there was no telling where he'd strike from.

"Have a seat John." The man pointed to one of the chairs with his umbrella.

"You know, I have a phone." Watson stated, moving over closer to the man he was to be meeting. "You could just phone me. On my phone."

"When one is avoiding the attention of Sherlock Holmes, one learns to be discrete. Hence this place." He explained. That only helped to confirm Heiji's theory. "The leg must be hurting you. Sit down." He offered the chair again. "You as well." he looked over at the Osakan. "The name you gave the police was Heiji Hattori, wasn't it?"

Heiji felt himself going tense. He wasn't from here-he was starting to think he wasn't even from this world so how had he gotten that information so quickly? Just how far did the web spread? Was this anything like the Black Organization that has Kudo so paranoid? "No thanks, I'll stand." He said coldly.

"I don't want to sit down either." Watson refused, obviously he was starting to get tense too.

"Neither of you seem very afraid." The man stated looking from the older to the younger.

"You don't seem very frightening." Watson responded immediately. Heiji, however, had his doubts, particularly when the man only chuckled at the response.

"Yes… the bravery of the soldier. Bravery is by far the kindest word for stupidity, don't you think?" He asked lightly before his tone turned somewhat serious. "What is your connection to Sherlock Holmes?"

"I don't.. have one. I barely know him. I met him… yesterday." John supplied. Heiji was quietly trying to remember everything that has happened in a study in scarlet and this wasn't one of them-at least he's fairly sure. But Kudo was the Holmes expert not him.

"Hmm… and since yesterday you've moved in and now you're solving crimes together. Might we expect a happy announcement by the end of the week?"

"Who are you?" Watson wanted to know. Heiji kept silent.

"An interested party."

"I know exactly who you are." Heiji cut in, glaring at the man who only seemed to find this to be amusing.

"You do, do you? And how could that be when there's no record of your existence anywhere-you or that little boy that was with you. By all appearances it seems as though the two of you popped up out of nowhere so how could you possibly know who I am?"

"Heh, wouldn't you like to know?" Heiji asked, sounding as smug and arrogant as could possibly manage.

"Sorry, Why exactly are you interested in Sherlock? I'm guessing you're not friends."

"Of course they aren't friends." Hattori interjected before the other could respond. The man raised an eyebrow at the teen and regarded the outburst coldly.

"Not a friend, no. But I am the closest thing to a friend someone like Sherlock Holmes is having. Perhaps it was a mistake to invite you along. But I was hoping to talk to you about your background."

"It's none of your business-I wouldn't tell ya if ya paid me." He said angrily.

"It's funny you mention payment, you see, I'm prepared to offer Dr. Watson here a considerable amount of money to-"

"Spy on Holmes? Yer barkin' up the wrong tree ya-" But Heiji was cut off abruptly by noise coming from John's pocket and the army doctor pulled his phone out to read the text message he'd been sent. Heiji leaned over to read it too so John moved away slightly.

"I hope I'm not distracting either of you." The man stated, watching the two. Watson stored the phone back in his pocket before returning his attention to the man.

"Not… distracting me at all." He stated, returning his attention to the man Hattori obviously did not like.

"Do you plan to continue your association with Sherlock Holmes?" The strange man continued on the subject of Holmes.

"I could be wrong, but I think that's none of your business." Watson answered, sounding slightly on edge.

"It could be."

"It really couldn't." John shook his head and Heiji nodded along side him, glaring darkly at the man.

"If you do move into um… two-hundred and twenty-one B Baker street, I'd be happy to-"

"I thought we established Watson-han wasn't gonna spy on Holmes." Heiji cut in, still glaring.

"I'm not asking for anything indiscreet just for one of you to tell me what he's up too." The man looked down at his umbrella. "And even if you don't want to accept the money, interesting thing about you, Heiji, is that there's no record of you-which means you can't possibly be in the country legally. If you intend to stay here, I think it might be better for you to cooperate." He smiled coldly at the teenager who only continued to glare.

"Black-mailing teenagers? Just what are you to Sherlock Holmes again?" Watson asked, receiving another text and checking it briefly before storing the phone back in his pocket.

"An enemy." The man stated calmly. "In fact, he he'd probably go as far to say I'm his arch-enemy."

"Arch-enemy?" Watson looked to Heiji who was still glaring and obviously not going to answer any questions since he had just found himself in a very precarious situation.

"In his mind surely. He does love to be dramatic. So what will it be?"

"No." Watson said firmly.

"But I haven't mentioned a figure."

"Don't bother."

"You may not be interested, Dr. Watson, but I'm afraid Heiji here has no choice. You see, he doesn't even have a passport and if he wants the papers to stay in the country-along with his little friend then I'll be expecting updates."

"I ain't makin' a deal with you." Heiji said angrily.

"I really don't think you have a choice."

"Why the Hell are you so interested in what Sherlock Holmes gets up to?" Watson demanded, taking the attention off the Japanese teenager.

"I worry about him. Constantly." The man answered.

"Since you're black mailing a teenager into spying on your arch-enemy maybe I'll just tell Sherlock what's happened here and then there won't be any point in his spying." Watson pointed out.

"You're very loyal, very quickly."

"No, I'm not. I'm just-"

"Trust issues, it says here." The strange man pulled out a small notebook. "Could it be you've decided to trust Sherlock Holmes of all people?"

"Are we done?"

"You tell me."

Watson thought about saying something else but turned to start heading away, when he turned to go, Heiji followed after him.

"I imagine you've already been warned to stay away from him, I can tell from your left hand that's not going to happen." John stopped where he stood and turned to face the man again.

"My what?" He asked as Heiji glanced down at Watson's hand. Of course he knew that Watson wasn't going to pay attention to the warning against Holmes but for reasons other than the doctor's left hand.

"Show me." The man demanded, staying in the same place as Watson slowly lifted his hand up to show the other man. Once he had, the man moved over to inspect it but John pulled his hand away.

"Don't-" The man gave him a look and grabbed his hand anyway, looking it over.

"Remarkable." He stated simply.

"What is?"

"Most people blunder around this city and only see the streets, the shops, the cars… when you walk with Sherlock Holmes you see the battlefield. You've seen it already."

"What's wrong with my hand?" Watson demanded. Heiji stayed silent, really not liking how much power this man had.

"You have an intermittent tremor in your left hand." Watson nodded once as this was true. "Your therapist thinks it's post-traumatic sets disorder. She thinks you're haunted by memories of your military service."

"Who the hell are you?" Watson demanded again, looking like he'd swallowed something sour. "And how do you know that?"

"Fire her. She's got it the wrong way round. You're under stress right now, and your hand is perfectly steady. You're not haunted by the war Dr. Watson, you miss it." He paused a moment and Watson swallowed right before his phone beeped again. "Welcome back." He whispered before turning and walking off. "Time to chose a side Dr. Watson.. Heiji." He called over his shoulder as he swung the umbrella and continued on without looking back.

Heiji tensed visibly at the the sound of approaching footsteps but it was just that girl-Anthea, he vaguely recalled her fake name being.

"I'm to take you home." She stated. "Both of you." Watson looked to Heiji who just shrugged, now eager to find Kudo. Too bad be didn't have service on his damn cell phone. Watson checked the message and store his phone back in his pocket. "Address?" The woman inquired.

"Uh… Baker street. 221 B baker street." He decided. "But I need to stop off somewhere first." He started to follow after the woman. Heiji let out a sigh, and followed after them two, thankfully the drive back was quiet


	6. A Study in Pink: Baker Street

Holmes took the suitcase to Baker Street and of course, Shinichi followed. Part of him expected to get shoo'd away as he was, sadly, quite accustomed to. However, when they reached the door Holmes held it open for him and Shinichi was more than happy to step inside. He followed Holmes up the stairs to the main area and noticed immediately that the layout was exactly like the museum had been. The only real differences, that Shinichi could see, were the fact it was clearly lived in and very modernized. Other than that everything was exactly as it had been-even Holmes' chair was sat in the exact same place. It was amazing. Simply, breathtakingly, amazing.

Holmes had taken the suitcase over to the sofa and immediately started to root through it, turning the carefully and neatly packed clothes into a messy pile within seconds. "It's not here." He finally said after a few more moments of ransacking the the poor suit case.

"What's not?" Conan returned his attention to the case at hand, having some difficulty pulling himself out of the overwhelming idea that he was at 221B Baker Street while Sherlock Holmes was there.

"I'll assume you just weren't paying attention and give you a minute to catch up or I'm kicking you out. I don't have time to deal with children." Holmes said harshly, alerting Shinichi that he was both serious about that threat and frustrated-very frustrated.

The younger moved over to the case and looked quickly through it, even going as far to run his fingers inside the inner compartments and frowning slightly at the mess inside the case. Were there outside pockets? He didn't remember seeing anything like that on the case but he flips it closed just in case to get a good look.

"Time's up. What's missing?" The older detective zipped up the case and set it off to the side before looking expectantly at the younger.

"Her phone." Shinichi stated simply. "Someone working in the media would no doubt have one on them at all times - her especially since she can't very well give her lovers' her home phone number. And even then, Hattori and I were thinking she might have been in town for some kind of interview or something work related with out how dressed up she was-surely someone like that would want their phone on them."

"Good. I was afraid for a moment I was going to throw you out." Holmes nodded, steeping his fingers together as he sat back in thought.

Shinichi turned as he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. An Elderly lady appeared dressed in dark purple and Shinichi had a good idea as to who she was.

"Oh, Sherlock, you said you'd be late-I didn't expect you back so soon." The lady stated before her eyes fell on the small detective. "Who's this young man?" She smiled kindly at him. Holmes looked at the lady to Conan.

"Conan-Son of a colleague- Parents very recently deceased- he'll be staying with me for awhile." He waved it off before leaning back to lay down on the couch and steepled his fingers together again.

"Poor dear, I'll make you a nice cup of cocoa." The lady Shinichi was now positive was Mrs. Hudson swopped down on him, looking him over carefully before returning her attention to her tenant. "Was it murder?" She asked before turning back to the seemingly seven year old child she was now under the impression was orphaned. "Well, don't worry, you'll be safe under this roof." She assured.

"Yes." Holmes' voice caused them both to turn the the Detective that was clearly trying to think about the case but kept being distracted. "Big explosion-nine dead, nothing left-very tragic. Now get him some food or something, I need to think." He waved her away.

"Th-that's okay, I don't need anything-the brain works better on an empty stomach." Conan shook his head, not even slightly interested in the idea of food.

"…Sherlock!" Mrs. Hudson rounded on the older detective who actually winced as he was ripped out out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"Have you been teaching him your bad habits?" She demanded, gently pulling Conan away from Holmes.

"No? No! How much time do you think I've had to teach him anything?" Holmes asked, raising an eyebrow at the accusation.

"Enough." She said sternly. "Come on dear, you can come back up once you've had a nice meal."

"But-" Conan started to protest.

"What? No, you can't take him-he's helping me with the case." Sherlock protested for him. Mrs. Hudson was unmoved.

"And when's the last time he's eaten?" She crossed her arms.

"Uh…" Conan faltered, trying to think about it, coming to the conclusion that the last time he ate was breakfast right before Hattori had burst through the agency door.

"Much too long then. He can help you after he's eaten." Mrs. Hudson said decidedly, giving neither of them room to argue as she ushered Conan towards the stairs


	7. A Study in Pink: The Elephant

Somewhere in the back of his mind he could hear someone arguing with someone and a woman that sounded upset . It started out mostly muffled but seemed to be get louder and more clear until finally the young detective opened his eyes to find he was staring at a ceiling. He Sat up immediately and an afghan that had been draped over him fell down to his legs he looked at it quizzically a moment and assumed Mrs. Hudson must have draped it over him when he fell asleep. He felt his face and noticed she had also removed his glasses. He looked over at the end table and snatched them back up before shoving them on his face.

"_Finally up?_" The familiar voice of Hattori Heiji met his ears and the Osakan (where had he even come from?) sat down beside him on the couch. "_Been waitin' on ya to wake up- Hudson-Obahan told me t' let ya sleep_." He rolled his eyes. "_It's a real pain tryin' t' convince someone ya need to be woken up when yer seven, ya know._"

"_All complaints about the inconveniences of the apotoxin should be directed at Haibara_." Shinichi yawned, pulling the Afghan off and getting down from the couch. "_Where's Holmes?_"

"_Out._" Heiji stated after giving his friend a look for comment about complaints. "_But I'm sure he'll be back soon considerin' Lestrade's runnin' a drugs bust up there. But he's got guys from the forensics team so I'm thinkin' he's just after th' case._" He explained easily. Shinichi's eyes widened and he looked towards the door.

"_Maybe you missed the part in the books where-_"

"_I didn't miss it, Kudo. To be honest, I kinda wondered if you didn't skip over that particular part_."

"_It wasn't illegal back then-just frowned upon._" Shinichi explained in his signature 'I-know-everything-so-you're-dumb' voice. Which, in his current condition only made him sound more like a brat. Heiji rolled his eyes.

"_My point is, if this Holmes has those same… uh… habits, I think he'd have hidden them somewhere th' police won't look._" Shinichi thought over Hattori's point and then sighed-Heiji was right. The police couldn't even begin to compare to Holmes so that brief moment of concern was meaningless. "_You wanna compare notes while yer waitin' on Holmes t' get back?_"

"_Might as well._" Shinichi agreed, moving back to climb up on the couch he'd been sleeping on.

"_So you wanna address the elephant now or later?_" Heiji asked, leaning casually against the couch, watching the smaller.

"_…That elephant being that Sherlock Holmes is supposed to be a fictional character and yet some how we've met him, Lestrade, John Watson and Mrs. Hudson? And we seem to have been dropped in some weird adaptation of A Study in Scarlet?_" Shinichi raised an eyebrow. Hattori only nodded, so they were addressing it now.

"_At first I thought we maybe got trapped in some weird coma-dream but that ain't the case. No way it can be. I know you aren't gonna like it but all evidence seems t-_"

"_Seems to point to the idea that somehow, someway we've been ended up in an alternate universe where Sherlock Holmes is a living, breathing human being and not just a character in a book? Yes, I came to that conclusion a while ago._" Conan cut him off.

"_Ya did? How?_" Heiji blinked, shocked to hear Kudo could come to a conclusion that involved thinking on science fiction.

"_This._" Conan pulled his phone out of his pocket and powered it on. He immediately went to his apps and pulled up a certain e-book before showing it to Hattori.

"…Sign of Four?_ You really have that saved on yer phone? …Do ya have Study in Scarlet on there_?"

"_Of course I do, I have the whole series saved on my phone. Getting stuck somewhere with nothing to read is a pain._" Conan defended his fanboy tendencies. Heiji rolled his eyes and shook his head as Conan powered down the phone. "_Anyways, I plan to talk to Holmes about this after the case is over-I don't think he'd want a cheat sheet._" He said calmly stored it back in his pocket.

"_…You think he'll believe ya?_"

"_I think he's Sherlock Holmes and once he's eliminated the impossible-_"

"_Yeah, yeah, whatever remains-I get yer point._" Heiji interrupted the smaller before he could finish the quote, earning a sour look from the younger detective.

"_So, what evidence do you have that convinced you this isn't a weird shared Coma?_"

"_I did some research and stopped by a book store._" He reached in his pocket and pulled out a book before dropping it on Conan's lap.

"_The White Company?_" The younger's eyes widened in shock as he picked up the book and looked it over carefully, flipping through the pages and going immediately to check the publish date. "_But this is-_"

"_Written by Arthur Conan Doyle, I know. Turns out the guy existed here but never had t' write the Sherlock Holmes Novels because th' earlier stuff took off well enough. He never got knighted but his birthdate and death date are all th' same_."

"_…what about-_"

"_Agatha Christie? Most her stuff stayed the same-one or two didn't get written and she ain't known as the Queen of Mystery since Doyle wasn't th' King of it._" Heiji explained. Conan was starting to see how Heiji could consider this proof-it's too detailed. Not even his subconscious could edit Sherlock Holmes completely out the history of mystery literature.

"_Arsene Lupin_?" He asked.

"_Still got written but instead of th' twenty-three books we know about there's only twenty. Three guesses which are missin_'" Heiji stated. "_Basically, if Sherlock Holmes was referenced in it or greatly inspired it, it was never written._" Heiji explained. "_So any thoughts on how we wound up here?_"

"_…No. Science Fiction isn't really my thing, Hattori._" Shinichi stated, sounding slightly annoyed with himself. "_But I'm sure we can find some kind of book on the multiverse theory-not like Doyle inspired that."_


	8. A Study in Pink: Drugs Bust

The sound of the door opening and closing abruptly put the conversation on hold and they both stayed silent, listening closely before they were able to confirm it was Holmes and Watson returning. Heiji turned to say something to the shrunken detective but he was already through the doorway and moving through the hall to the get to the front door. He couldn't help the amusing thought that Kudo was like a small child all excited to see his dad get home from work before he followed after.

Shinichi heard the two head up the stairs and didn't even stop to say anything to Mrs. Hudson as he raced up the steep stairs too-mostly though, because he knew Hattori would. Honestly, it was probably better for the Osakan to talk to the people that got upset as Shinichi had a way of just making it awkward for both parties.

"What are you doing?" He could hear Holmes' who sounded more than a little annoyed. He reached the top of the stairs and slid easily inside to the main room, seeing Lestrade sitting in a chair and the forensic specialist team investigating the kitchen. Hattori was right, if this Holmes did have a drug problem then he wouldn't hide it somewhere the police could find.

"I knew you'd find the case, I'm not stupid." Lestrade stated, completely unrepentant. He must have heard Conan come up the stairs because his gaze immediately shifted to the small boy. He frowned quizzically as recognition set in and then looked over at Sherlock again. "You brought him back here too?"

"Never mind him, you can't just break into my flat." He tried to wave the subject of Conan away.

"You can't withhold evidence-or kidnap children, even if he is smart. Besides, I didn't break in."

"Well what do you call this then?" Holmes demanded, ignoring the comment about kidnapping children. Lestrade looked at his team before answering in the same unrepentant voice.

"It's a drugs bust."

"Seriously?" John almost sounded amused. "This guy? A junkie? Have you met him?"

"John…." Sherlock turned to him.

"I'm pretty sure you could search this flat all day and you wouldn't find anything you could call recreational." John continued.

"John, you probably want to shut up, now." Holmes told him.

"_Guess that answers that._" Heiji's whispered voice made Conan jump as he spun to face the Osakan.

"_Guess so._" He whispered back using his own language.

"_Disappointed?_"

"_No._" Conan shot his friend a dark look.

"-I'm not your sniffer dog." Holmes had turned away from Watson as he faced Lestrade.

"No, Anderson's my sniffer dog." Lestrade stated nodding his head towards the kitchen where the forensic team was. Holmes apparently hadn't yet noticed it was the forensics team.

"Anderson, what are _you_ doing here on a drugs bust?" Holmes demanded.

"Oh, I volunteered." The man answered sounding like the task was enjoyable which earned a glare from the shrunken detective.

"They all did." Lestrade was saying. "They're not strictly speaking _on_ the drug squad, but they're very keen."

"Are these human eyes?" Even that female officer Sally was there.

"Put those back!" Holmes responded immediately.

"They were in the microwave." The woman informed, a disgusted tone somewhere in her voice.

"It's an experiment." Holmes told her, taking a step away and putting his hand in his pockets.

"Keep looking guys." Lestrade encouraged before getting to his feet. "Or you can start helping us properly and I'll stand them down."

"This is childish." Holmes muttered as he paced another area of the room.

"Well, I'm dealing with a child." Lestrade stated which only served to earn him a glare from the youngest detective in the room. "Sherlock, this is _our_ case. I'm letting you in, but you do not go off on your own. Clear?"

Heiji nudged Conan in the side so that he stumbled forward and had to straighten his glasses. "Sounds kinda like you, Kudo." Heiji beamed at him, ignoring the death glare the smaller was giving him for nearly knocking him on his face.

"So-So you set up a pretend drugs bust to bully me?" Holmes shot back.

"It stops being pretend if they find anything." Lestrade shrugged.

"I am clean." Sherlock stated firmly.

"Is your flat? All of it?"

"I don't even smoke." He unbuttoned his shirt cuff and pulled his sleeve back to reveal a nicotine patch.

"Niether do I." Lestrade did the same, also wearing a nicotine patch. "So let's work together. We found Rachel." He said after a moment of silence.

"Who is she?" Holmes' attention was snagged.

"Jennifer Wilson's only daughter."

"Her Daughter?" Holmes thought over the new information. Conan and Hattori both looked at each other quizzically. "Why would she write her daughter's name, why?" Holmes was obviously thinking the same thing both the other two detectives were.

"Never mind that, we found the case. According to _someone_ the murderer has the case and we found it in the hands of our favorite pyscho-Ow!" Anderson was cut off as he experienced a sharp pain in his foot, only to find the youngest person in the room had quite deliberately stomped on his foot which had the unintended result of him picking Conan up by the back of his shirt collar.

"Not a psychopath Anderson, I'm a high-functioning sociopath. Do your research." He paused a moment. "And put him down. You need to bring rachel in to question her. _I_ need to question her." Holmes turned back to Lestrade.

"She's dead." The detective inspector informed.

"Excellent." Holmes said excitedly. "How, when, and why? Is there a connection? There has to be."

"Well, I doubt it since she's been dead for fourteen years. Technically, she was never alive. Rachel was Jennifer Wilson's stillborn daughter, 14 years ago." Lestrade explained.

"Oh…That's… That's not right. How…? Why would she do that? Why?" Holmes asked to no one in particular.

"Why would she think of her daughter in her last moments? Yeah, Sociopath. Seeing it now."

"That's not what he means!" Conan piped up irritatedly, wrestling to get Anderson to let go of his collar now that he was back on solid ground.

"She didn't think about her daughter. She scratched her name on the floor with her fingernails. She was dying. It took effort. It would have hurt."

"You said the victims all took the poison themselves. That he _makes_ them take it. Well, maybe he… I don't know, talks to them?" John attempted to be helpful as Holmes paced. "Maybe he used the death of her daughter somehow?"

"But that was ages ago. Why would she still be upset?" The room feel quiet and all eyes were on Sherlock. A tangible 'Uh….' seemed to hang in the air.

"…Not good?" He asked John who looked back at the officers before turning to Holmes.

"Bit not good, yeah."

"Yeah but, if you were dying, if you were being murdered, in your very last few seconds what would you say?"

"Please God, let me live." John obviously did not think on it for long.

"Use your imagination." Holmes was not satisfied with that answer.

"I don't have too." Once again, the room was awkwardly silent for a moment.

"…Yeah, but if you were clever, really clever. Jennifer Wilson? Running all those lovers - She _was_ clever." Holmes stated, obviously not bothered by the idea he'd just implied Watson wasn't clever as he started his pacing again. "She's trying to tell us something."

"Isn't the doorbell working? Your taxi's here, Sherlock." Mrs. Hudson had come up the stairs.

"I didn't order a taxi. Go away." He waved her off.

"Kudo." Heiji hissed to the detective that was just returning to his side.

"Ah." Was the smaller's only response.

"Oh dear, they're making such a mess." Mrs Hudson commented. "What are they looking for?"

"It's a drugs bust, Mrs. Hudson." John was kind enough to inform her right before Heiji could.

"But they're just for my hip." The lady explained hurriedly. "They're _herbal_ soothers-"

"Shut up!" Sherlock shouted suddenly. "Everybody! Shut up! Don't move, don't speak, don't breathe! I'm trying to think. Anderson, face the other way, you're putting me off."

"What? My face is?" The man was offended.

"Everybody quiet and still. Anderson turn your back." Lestrade ordered.

"Oh for God's sake-"

"Your back! Now, please!" Lestrade ordered again, this time Anderson rolled his eyes but turned his back.

"Come on, think. Quick!" Holmes was saying.

"What about your taxi?" Mrs. Hudson inquired.

"Mrs. Hudson!" Holmes shouted at the lady which made her immediately retreat. "Oh!" He finally exclaimed. "Ah! She was clever. Clever, yes!" He exclaimed, clearly he'd figured it out. "She's cleverer than you lot and she's dead. Do you see? Do you get it?" Heiji was starting to question why this guy was Kudo's role model.

"She didn't lose her phone. She never lost it. She _planted_ it on him." he went on explaining. "When she got out of the car, she knew she was going to her death. She left the phone in order to lead us to her killer."

"But how?" Lestrade asked.

"What do you mean, how?" Holmes stopped, honestly confused by the question. Lestrade shrugged. "Rachel!" Holmes exclaimed. Only silence followed. "Don't you see? Rachel!"

"Ah!" The younger detectives finally caught on to Holmes' reasoning.

"Thank you!" Holmes recognized that Heiji and Conan understood the meaning behind the dying message. "If you two wouldn't mind then-" he gestured to the laptop on the desk.

"Not at all." Conan piped up. "Hattori, you-"

"On it." Heiji moved over tot he laptop. "Address?"

"As for the rest of you lot, Rachel is not a name." Holmes tried to explain the vacant others.

"Jennie dot pink at me phone dot org dot UK." Conan was reading something on the luggage tag.

"Uh, I've been too slow, she didn't have a laptop, which means she did her business on her phone." Holmes was muttering as he watched Hattori key in the address. The Osakan paused briefly before shouting over his shoulder.

"Oi, Ku-ah-Conan-kun was it-"

"With an ie." Conan answered lazily.

"So, it's a smartphone, it's e-mail enabled." Holmes continued once the spelling issue was out of the way. "So there was a website for her account. The username is her e-mail address, and all together now, the password is…?"

"Rachel…?" John offered, the only one to speak up. Hattori only stayed quiet though because he was keying in the password.

"So we can read her e-mails. So what?" Anderson asked, clearly he had not caught on just yet.

"Anderson, don't talk out loud. You lower the IQ of the whole street-" Holmes stated. Heiji snorted.

"Ya can do a lot more than read e-mails with a phone like that-Ya ever heard of GPS? Pretty much all smart phones are equipped with it so that if ya lose it you can, ya know, find it online." He explained, twisting the chair a little to face Anderson as he explained.

"She's leading us directly to the man that killed her." Holmes continued to watch the screen.

"Unless he got rid of it." Lestrade pointed out.

"We know he didn't." Watson stated, he too was watching the screen.

"Come on, come on. Quickly!" Holmes urged the laptop.

"Sherlock, dear. This taxi driver.." Mrs. Hudson was back.

"Mrs. Hudson, isn't it time for your evening soother?" He asked his landlady as he was probably getting tired of shooing her away before going back over to talk to Lestrade about how to proceed forward.

"Uh…. Holmes-han." The Kansai detective started as the page had finished loading.

"Sherlock…" Watson was looking over the teenager's shoulder.

"Where is it? Quickly, tell me." Holmes moved back over to the laptop.

"It's… here… It's in 221B Baker street." Watson informed.

"…How could it be here?" Holmes stood up straight again, trying to think. "How?"

"Well… maybe it was in the case when you brought it back and it… fell out somewhere." Lestrade offered looking around the room.

"What, and I didn't notice it? Me?" Holmes countered, Heiji privately thought he had a point and turned to talk to Kudo only to discover he wasn't there.

"_…Damn it. Not again._"

"What?" Lestrade jumped at the loud outburst as Holmes stayed lost in thought so, no one noticed the taxi cab driver come in.

"Ah… just that… Ku-ah-Conan-kun seems t' have wandered off somewhere-ya haven't seen him since he gave me that address, have you?"

"No… I wasn't paying attention to him, sorry."

"Figures." Hattori deflated.

"Sherlock, you okay?" John was asking as Holmes had gone quiet while everyone else discussed the phone or in Heiji's case, that Conan had run off again.

"What…?" Holmes responded, sounding distracted. "Yeah, yeah… I'm fine."

"So, how can the phone be here?" Watson asked, turning back to the screen.

"Don't know."

"I'll try it again."

"Good idea." Holmes stated the same distracted tone as he moved towards the door.

"Hey, Where are you going?" John noticed he was leaving.

"Fresh air, just popping outside for a moment." He responded, starting down the stairs. "Won't be long." John frowned.

"Are you sure you're all right?" He called after him.

"I'm fine." Shortly after he called back the door shut. Once he'd left the investigation team stood around the flat waiting on Holmes to come back inside. Heiji moved over to the window to glance down, watching Holmes talking to the cabbie for a while before the detective got into the back seat and the cab drove off.

"…He just got in a cab." Watson had his phone to his ear as he watched from the window as well. "It's, Sherlock, he just drove off in cab."

"I told you, he does that." Sally explained, clearly tired of this. "He bloody left again." She turned to Lestrade before addressing the others. "We're wasting our time."

"I'm… calling the phone it's ringing out." Watson explained.

"And if it's ringing, it's not here." Lestrade realized.

"I'll try the search again." Watson moved back over to the laptop as Sally approached Lestrade.

"Does it matter, does any of it?" She asked, fed up with everyone in the room.

"Of course it does." Heiji cut in, leaning casually against the window. "Go ahead, Watson-han, I'm sure you'll find somethin' interesting."

"It's taking a bit longer to load." John reported.

"That's most likely because it's no longer at Baker Street and since it's movin' much more difficult to get a fixed point on it."

"So Sherlock does have it." Anderson offered, thinking he'd figured it out.

"Ahou, Holmes-han ain't the one with the phone, the taxi driver is." The statement was met with blank silence and Heiji's palm met with this forehead. "…Ya know, I'm beginning to understand Holmes' frustration with you all."

"Wait." John spoke up. "Sherlock tried to bait the murderer into showing up at a specific address. The only one he thought was suspicious was a taxi but we thought it was the passenger and not the driver…" John informed them all. "..It's still not getting a fix."

"It probably won't until the car stops." Heiji sighed- just keep an eye one it.

"So what? How does that prove the murderer is that taxi driver?" Anderson asked.

"For one, the phone is motion, ya idiot. And two, Holmes said somethin' very important that you all missed."

"And what was that?" Lestrade chanced asking. Heiji smirked.

'_I didn't order a taxi.'_


End file.
